THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 26, 1995 TAG: 9511220008
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
C'mon, let me show you where it's at,
C'mon, let me show you where it's at,
C'mon, let me show you where it's at,
The name of the place is, I like it like that.
- R&B lyrics from the early '60s
Never mind that the U.S. budget had been hanging by a shoestring all week. Never mind that federal employees were furloughed and in danger of losing their paychecks. Or that retirees were in danger of losing benefits.
What really bothered readers last weekend was our grammar in imparting this news.
On that Saturday's front page, a text block explained the congressional impasse with updates labeled ``Where it's at'' or ``Where they're at.'' Those subheads had a dozen reader-grammarians reacting like someone had run their fingernails down a blackboard.
A ``major grammatical error,'' pronounced one caller.
``Very offensive,'' said another, an English teacher.
To a third, it was the last straw. ``I am finally calling you after all these years of suffering with incorrect grammar in your paper,'' he said. ``Please let somebody teach your writers something about grammar.''
But my favorite comment came from the earnest parent who groaned, after reading the offending ``where it's ats-es,'' that ``I'm having a cow.''
Whoa! How can someone who's ``having a cow'' possibly object to a smattering of front-page vernacular?
I'll have to confess, if you haven't guessed already, that I'm not a high stickler for the rules of grammar. I've never felt dissed by whatever teenspeak is in rage.
Obviously, I'm not the ideal judge of good English, so I opened the telephone directory and looked up the Grammar Hotline. The number is listed under Tidewater Community College (427-7170).
TCC offers this service nationwide, via a directory, to students, writers, business people - anyone who doesn't know his preterits from his possessives. The grammar aides will even help look up a word you can't spell well enough to find in a dictionary.
Each day, at certain hours, the hot line is staffed by an English instructor who takes shifts answering calls. The instructor who answered on Monday was diana miller (that's how she spells it, a la e.e. cummings). She gave my request her full attention, consulting various reference books and colleagues before calling back.
Anyway, miller thinks that readers are reacting to the age-old grammar taboo: Thou shalt not end sentences with a preposition. But that ``hard and fast'' rule, she said, has been disputed in later grammar references.
According to one such tome, ``The Gregg Reference Manual, 7th Edition,'' the whole thing depends on what emphasis and effect is desired.
If you wish to be formal, ``Where it is'' (or, in this case, perhaps ``Congressional update'') would be more appropriate. If you wish to be informal or colloquial, then ``Where it's at'' is where it's at.
To me, the use of the phrase has a message. It's a writer or editor's way of saying: We're taking technical information and trying to make it understandable to you, the reader.
You can interpret that as ``dumbing down.'' Or as a good-faith effort to turn legalese and legislativese into plain, understandable English.
Or, of course, you can have a cow and accuse the paper of sinking into the pits of slang.
Either way, keep in mind the words of that great statesman and writer, Winston Churchill. He said that the rule of not ending a sentence with a preposition ``is nonsense up with which I will not put.''
THE MAN WHO ISN'T GARTH. Country singer Garth Brooks has a lot of fans in Hampton Roads and most of them, it seemed, called us Tuesday morning.
Laughing and groaning, they made it clear that was not a photo of Brooks with the Daily Break story on his new album and upcoming tour. It was another country singer, John Michael Montgomery.
``That's not even a shirt Garth would wear,'' said Jenni Poulter of Virginia Beach, a fan of both singers. The shirt Montgomery sported was striped and colorful, but he was wearing the trademark black hat.
Adding insult to injury, the caption was wrong, too - it came out ``Garth Books.''
How do these things happen? In this case, it began with a mislabeled photo slide.
If you wanted to see the real Garth Brooks that day, you didn't have to look far. An item about him was in the People column, with the correct mug shot.
But our readers, more than four dozen of them, let us know that we didn't fool them with the Daily Break photo.
For country fans, I guess, Garth Brooks is where it's at!
by CNB